For the eighth week of TORCH Goes Digital, we focused on the theme of “Women”. Together with leading researchers from the University of Oxford and beyond, the TORCH team curated a wonderful programme of blog posts, podcasts, news articles, poems, performances and more centred around the legacy of some amazing women. We wanted to celebrative inclusivity with this week’s theme, and to this end, we examined how women’s issues intersect with race, disability, sexuality, trans rights, and more.
Popular content included Jane Eyre Translated, in which Professor Matthew Reynolds explores how different cultures interpret Charlotte Brontë’s classic novel, an overview of Professor Barbara Savage’s lecture on Professor Merze Tate and Black Women’s Intellectual History, and Patience Agbabi Reading and Conversation.
We also were proud to showcase the 100 Women of Oxford exhibition by local photographer Philippa James. 100 Women of Oxford grew from Philippa’s passion to connect with other women in my community. She was intrigued by their stories, and why they too were living in this city of dreaming spires.
To celebrate the #TORCHGoesDigital! theme for this week, the TORCH Heritage programme highlighted a number of exciting projects, including 'Miracle Kitchens and Bachelor Pads: The Competing Narratives of Modern Spaces'. This paper by Rebecca Devers, Assistant Professor of English at the New York City College of Technology, was published in the collective volume InHabit: People, Places and Possessions, edited by Antony Buxton, Linda Hulin, and Jane Anderson in 2017. The volume was the product of the TORCH research network inHabit: Text, Object and Domestic Space.
Through a series of workshops, the Heritage Team supported Historic Royal Palaces in setting up the AHRC-funded research network Victoria’s Self-Fashioning: Curating the Royal Image for Dynasty, Nation and Empire, and introduced Dr Priya Atwal to the project's principal investigators, just in time for the 200th birth anniversary of Queen Victoria on 24 May 2019. Dr Atwal reflected on this collaboration in her blog post Fashioning Victoria.
On the evening of Wednesday 13th May 2020, from 5.00pm-6.00pm, we had our sixth Big Tent, Live Events! live-streamed discussion. Celebrated author Maaze Mengiste discussed her incredible new book, The Shadow King with Professor Elleke Boehmer, Birhanu T. Gessese, Professor Richard Reid, and Professor Tsehai Berhane-Selassie. The event was an enormous success, and we all enjoyed the variety of insights and experiences discussed.
